Elsie
Chapter Thirty-Four
You should put yourself out there.
Clearly, Will was trying to give me a hint, and luckily for him, I was smart enough to decode what it was, even with his uncharacteristically awkward way of delivering the message.
But I was a writer. I could understand context clues. Which is how I realized he’d been trying to let me know he was not interested in me and I should find someone who was.
I guess he didn’t even need to kiss me to figure out he wasn’t into me. The mere notion of almost doing it was plenty for Will Hughes!
I hadn’t thought my pride could be anymore shattered after Andrew’s rejection, but somehow here we were.
And worse, it had left an ache that I hadn’t been anticipating, because, being on theme with the perfect tragedy of my life, I’d realized I’d liked him at almost the same moment he realized he definitely didn’t like me.
Ironic, really.
With Andrew’s rejection, there’d been almost a sense of…relief? It might’ve come way after the fact, but still, it had been there.
It had been the notion of: Thank God I wasn’t bound for life to a man who never really learned to tolerate me at all.
But now? With Will? It just felt like pain.
Still, I wasn’t about to let him see that. I should’ve known all along it was a longshot. We were too different. I talked a mile a minute, and he was the type of guy who probably wished he had noise cancelling headphones to tune it out.
He had always sought me out and tried to help me, but now that I knew the backstory with his brother, it was hard to pin that down as anything other than an (unwarranted) guilty conscience.
So, proving to him that he didn’t need to worry about me having some type of stalker-crush on him, I agreed to go to the Fall Fest with Theo that very night.
And not just as a hangout this time. But a date. A fact that Theo himself went out of his way to specify.
Which is how I ended up standing in my closet, examining every article of clothing I owned, trying to figure out which one best said: I’m ready to love again.
Not that I was even sure I liked Theo enough to be picking out a special outfit, but I figured that the first date after a broken engagement warranted something to signify the event.
I flicked through my chunky Nordic sweaters, my striped sweaters, some sweatshirts—God, I had way too many sweaters—and landed on a short denim dress that might pull off the fall vibe I was going for.
I could pair it with a long sleeve white mock neck underneath. A cute pair of boots. I could do my makeup for the first time since getting here. Do something different with my mane of hair besides the braid or bun I usually tried to tame it into.
And who knows, maybe I could like Theo. Maybe, like Will said, I hadn’t put myself out there enough to find out. I’m sure it was no coincidence his friend asked me out the very day Will had given me that friendly advice.
They probably plotted it all out together. Will was probably Theo’s wingman. Or maybe Theo was taking pity on his friend who probably had shaken him by the collar crying, “Get this crazy girl away from me!”
Well, not to worry, Will. Message received.
I got ready for my first ‘first’ date in years and put all thoughts of Will Hughes out of mind.
Theo drove a sports car.
Which wasn’t bad! It was just…decidedly different from the rusticness of Will’s pickup truck I’d grown accustomed to.
The car was clean. The type of clean that made me think he never, under any circumstances, allowed anyone to snack in. I was too afraid to even pull out a piece of gum in its pristineness.
It also smelled like man. Not Will’s pine and outdoorsy scent of man. But Prada cologne and hair gel.
While I took stock of every marked difference between Theo and Will and the vehicles they used to haul them around town, I tried to listen as he talked a lot about sports.
Baseball, mostly. Even though baseball season was over. But, to my satisfaction, I learned he had in fact ran track in high school, proving my earliest assumption about him correct. But only during the off seasons, so he could stay in shape for lacrosse.
He asked about me, too. High school, mostly, much to my dismay, since those definitely were not my golden years. He pegged me for a theater kid, which I tried not to take offense to, but he found it similarly fitting when he found out I was on the school paper.
I didn’t see what theater had to do with journalism, except maybe Newsies, but I didn’t point that out.
I was sure we’d be moving on to talk of college next, but there was only so much ground you could cover from the three minutes it took to drive from my house to the town square.
“We should’ve just walked.” I laughed as he tried to find a parking spot along the full road.
“I’d never let a lady walk on the first date,” he said in feigned outrage. “It’s like, in the manual that you have to pick her up. You know, ring the doorbell, shake hands with the parents, the whole ordeal.”
“Too bad my parents are in Boston, and in a house I haven’t lived in since I was eighteen.” I laughed.
“Well, I pet your cat, so that was the next best thing.”
He smiled warmly, and I felt guilty for some reason. Theo was easy to get along with. Funny, too. But I didn’t feel it yet. The sparks, or whatever it was you were supposed to feel.
I guess I hadn’t with Andrew, either. Or any of the other guys I’d dated. Deep down, I knew the whole butterfly, fireworks thing was a myth, but I’d at least felt attraction before. But between Theo and I? It just wasn’t there.
“I’m just gonna park behind the café,” he said, maneuvering toward Hughes, before pulling into a small area behind the café I hadn’t known even existed.
But there sat Will’s truck parked next to Ava’s car, right beside a dumpster.
“Is Will going to the Fall Fest tonight?” I asked suddenly.
“Will?” He snorted. “No way. I tried to talk him into it, but you know him—anything fun, and he runs in the opposite direction.”
“Lame,” I said, even as I felt myself deflate. I liked being around Will. I liked teasing him and acting outrageous to make him laugh. The truth was, after spending almost every day in his vicinity since I got here, I’d gotten used to him being around.
It’s just one night. You’ll see him in the morning.
As if thinking of him was enough to conjure him up, Will walked out the back door with Ava close beside him.
My heart sped up at the sight of him, and if I’d been alone, I probably would’ve verbally berated the damned thing for acting against our better interests.
“Speak of the devil,” Theo said, turning off the ignition and getting out of the car.
“Hey, what are you doing back—” I heard Will start to ask, only for his words to die when I climbed out the passenger side. “Elsie?”
Ava’s eyes widened, as if she hadn’t expected to see me there. Odd, considering her previous behavior suggests she’d love nothing more than to attend mine and Theo’s wedding.
Now, she looked between the two men with apprehension, as if they were puzzle pieces she couldn’t quite figure out.
“Hey.” I waved awkwardly, feeling suddenly wildly out of place beside Theo.
Usually, when I saw Will, he was the one I was standing beside or headed somewhere with. I’d gotten used to it being that way.
To wave ‘hey’ at him before running off for the night with his friend felt strange. Wrong, even.
This is what he wants. I reminded myself when the feeling of guilt settled on me.
“What’s up?” Will asked, staring only at me. “Did you forget something inside?”
“No.” I shook my head. “I, um, came with Theo.”
Idiot. He can obviously see that.
I looked to my date for help, thankful when he leaped in with an explanation.
“We’re going to the Fall Festival,” he said, hands slipping casually into his pockets. “The street is full, so I figured you wouldn’t mind if we parked here.”
“Nope,” Will bit out so sharply that I almost thought he meant we needed to leave. “Don’t mind at all.”
Theo sensed the change in the air the same way I did and tilted his head at Will in question.
For a moment, I wondered if I had miscalculated completely.
Maybe he didn’t want me to date his friend because he didn’t want me to have another reason to stick around any longer than necessary.
“How fun,” Ava said, shifting her purse from one arm to the other. “I haven’t been to that in a few years.”
“You should go,” I told her, because what else was I going to say? Everyone else had suddenly taken a vow of silence, and I needed to speak, if only to diffuse whatever tension was clouding the air.
“Oh, actually, I—” Ava opened her mouth to respond, but Will beat her to it.
“You know what? That’s a great idea. How about we all go?”
“What?” Theo reeled. “You literally swore off all town events this morning.”
“Yeah, well, if Ava wants to go, then I don’t see why we shouldn’t make it another one of those fun group outings like we had last time.”
“No, really, that’s okay,” Theo said, giving Will a pointed look that he seemed not to pick up on. “I think Elsie and I were hoping to get to know each other better. You know, alone.”
“Let them go, Will.” Ava huffed. “Don’t be stubborn.”
“Earlier this morning you asked me to come, didn’t you?” Will said, as if Theo were the one who didn’t understand. “And I changed my mind. It seems like everyone in town is going to this thing, so why not?”
I bounced on the heels of my feet, clearly missing important context to the silent battle occurring between the two friends. The traitorous part of me wanted Will to come with us because he had a way of making everything better. But another part of me was irritated beyond belief.
I mean, he was the one who told me I needed to put myself out there. He practically forced me to accept this date. And now he was pissed that it was his friend who asked me?
Well, tough luck.
“Will—” Theo protested, but I laid a hand on his arm, the lesser side of me winning out against my pride.
“No, it’s okay,” I told him, catching Will watching us from the side of my vision. “They should come. That sounds fun.”
“What do you say, Ava?” Will asked tightly. “How about we make it another one of our group outings?”
“Uh,” she said, staring between Theo, who was trying to subtly shake his head no, and Will, whose quiet intensity had her backed into a corner. “Okay?”
“Great,” Theo muttered. “Really, really super.”